Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard addressed speculation that she would run for U.S. Senate in 2024 in response to a recent poll which pits Gabbard against incumbent Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono.
Addressing the poll, a representative of Gabbard denied any knowledge of or responsibility for the poll, claiming that the former Hawaii representative had no intentions to seize Hirono’s Senate seat.
“Gabbard doesn’t know anything about the poll. She has no plans to run for the U.S. Senate,” said Gabbard’s spokeswoman Erika Tsuji.
The Hirono campaign denied having sent out the survey and reiterated the senator’s intention to seek reelection to the Senate in 2024.
“She is running for reelection so Hawaii can continue to have a people’s senator who’s always on their side,” added Hirono’s spokesman George Flynn.
The poll was reportedly sent out via SurveyMonkey to residents of the Aloha state, as reported by Hawaii News Now. As of this writing, the results of the survey have not been made public.
An independent Gabbard would likely face an uphill battle if she wished to challenge Hirono to represent Hawaii, the most Democratic-leaning state by some metrics. Hirono is also highly popular in her state according to polling by Morning Consult, which ranks her among the 10 most popular U.S. senators at 60% approval in her home state.
Gabbard previously served as congressional representative for Hawaii’s 2nd district from 2013 to 2021. Early in her congressional career, Gabbard also held a position as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, a position which she resigned from in 2016 in protest of the Committee’s treatment of Bernie Sanders.
Gabbard declined to seek reelection to the House of Representatives in 2020 as she campaigned for president of the United States in which contest she earned a mere two delegates from American Samoa. Since leaving Congress, Gabbard has appeared as a pundit on Fox News and has distanced herself from the Democratic Party, which she formally left in October of last year.
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